Walt Disney was born Walter Elias Disney on December 5, 1901.  He won awards as a film producer, director, screenwriter, animator and as a voice actor. Disney is best known for his influence on the world of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder with his brother Roy Disney of Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney became one of the best-known movie makers in the world.  The Walt Disney Company has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.

He and his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.  He received fifty-nine Academy Award nominations and won twenty-six Oscars, including a record four in one year, and thus holds the record for the individual with the most awards and the most nominations. He won seven TV Emmy Awards. Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Disney theme parks in Japan, France and China are all named for him. 

Disney died on December 15, 1966 of lung cancer, a few years prior to the opening of his the Walt Disney Resort, which was his dream project in Florida.

During the second phase of the "Walt Disney World" theme park, EPCOT was changed by Disney's successors into the EPCOT Center, which opened in 1982. As it currently exists, EPCOT is essentially a living World's Fair different from the actual functional city that Disney had envisioned. In 1992, Walt Disney Imagineering took the step closer to Walt's original vision and dedicated Celebration, Florida, a town built by the Walt Disney Company adjacent to Walt Disney World, that returns to the spirit of EPCOT. It was originally intended not to have Disney characters in EPCOT which initially limited the appeal of the park to children but the company later changed their mind on this policy.